Beach Life

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Yesterday, we took the bus to a nearby beach by the name of Cala Compte, known for its crystal-clear waters.

This beach really lived up to its reputation! We waded into the water until we were up to our necks, and still we could see our feet, not to mention schools of small fish swimming by.

Note that I only mentioned the water, and not the beach itself. The sand was quite nice, but you don't really notice the sand because one's first impression of the beach is that it is teeming with Italians.

And in case you are getting the impression that that is a bad thing, let me make it clear for you all that it certainly is not. We saw couples tanning in the sun together, whole families of all 3 generations sitting and chatting together, and many, many happy kids running around the beach, splashing each other and everyone else. There was no sense of formality or pretentiousness here, either with conversation or with clothing (all of Ibiza is clothing-optional, in any case, and no, we did not join in the optional-ness, in case you were wondering).

Everybody here was just truly happy and enjoying each others' company as well as the beach. No gang-bangers, no hooligans, no pretentious divad, just good people. We felt very much a part of the crowd here.
And that was just the beach. The bar by the beach was something else altogether.

I once heard a quote about traveling : "One discovers upon traveling to a new place that one doesn't exist" - in other words, you don't fit anywhere, you don't know anyone, you effectively don't exist (except perhaps as a walking ATM ready to dispense money to the local tourist industry).

Well, that was certainly not the case at this bar! Bar Cala Conta (the beach's alternate spelling) was a nice bar in a great location, on a hilltop overlooking several beaches with cool turquoise water on three sides. We thought we'd hang out there after we had missed the last bus back to town at 6:45...we certainly didn't expect to make friends with half the bar and spend the evening dancing to the coolest lounge music we've heard in a while, facing the setting sun, with a bunch of new Italian and French friends..

Paoco, Francisca, and Marco just happened to be sitting next to us and on their third or fourth mojito when we sat down.

Being the only Asians in the bar (and, we think, the only non-Chinese restaurant owning Asians in town), they were curious as to where we're from, and struck up a conversation. Using about a quarter English, a quarter Italian, and about half Sangrian, we chatted all evening. In the we we all just got up and danced to the funky beats the resident DJ was pumping out. Soon Paoco was going around the bar and pulling shy ladies out of their seats and getting them to dance. Of course where the ladies go, the men follow, et voila! Instant bar-wide party.

In the end, everyone had to leave, but at least we swapped contact info first.

Later on, we ended up bumping into a bunch of Frenchmen, who were looking for a taxi ride home just as we were. Fortunately we managed to put our high school French to good use. One long converation about Cafe del Mar later we've all agreed to meet there the next day.

We'll see if the Cafe lives up to its reputation tonight.

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